Joseph Conrad wrote during a complicated time in which the West had a variety of opinions—most of which were condescending at best and racist at worst—about other races, regions, and cultures. At the turn of the twentieth century, many British still felt it was their right (and their responsibility, even) to control and “enlighten” different people across the world, while still others felt it was no longer appropriate to colonize other lands. With this complex milieu in mind, it may seem difficult to determine precisely what Conrad’s intentions were when presenting “exotic” characters in his texts. 

In “The Lagoon,” Conrad is vague about precisely where the story takes place. However, it is likely Malaysia, given that the steersman is Malaysian, the characters refer to themselves as islanders, and he refers to plants (nipa and nibong palms) that grow primarily in the Pacific islands. Further, Arsat addresses the white man as “Tuan,” which is a Malaysian term of respect. Still, the fact that there is no location specified is problematic from a racial and ethnic angle, as it suggests that this story might apply to any culture not well understood by Europeans. Without a specific location, characters like the rowers and Arsat become a generic “other.” It is also difficult to tell the authenticity of some of the beliefs that Conrad presents here, or whether Arsat’s story is the sort of thing that might have happened to a Malaysian islander or simply an exoticized account as imagined by a white, European author. 

On the other hand, Conrad’s stories gave people a glimpse into other cultures that are, unlike many of his contemporaries, portrayed sympathetically and with a measure of humanity. In “The Lagoon,” for instance, Arsat tells a story of love similar to many Western “star-crossed lover” tales, such as Pyramus and Thisbe or Romeo and Juliet. Further, as suggested by Arsat in the story, islanders and white people share similar motivations for wealth, power, and love. Whether Conrad’s representation of islanders and other Indigenous peoples is authentic, he does seem to want his Western readers to identify with characters that are otherwise unlike themselves. 

Regardless of his stance, Conrad was aware that many of his readers would know little about the locations of his stories (often Africa, but in the case of “The Lagoon,” the Pacific Islands) and relied on a lurid descriptive style to familiarize them with these far-flung places. His image-laden, dreamlike, and impressionistic style plays upon his readers’ imaginations and, in “The Lagoon,” seems to mix the real and tangible with the conceptual and imaginary.

A prime example of Conrad’s style is his description of the night as the white man sits in silence with Arsat. Conrad describes the stillness of the night, but slowly, he begins to describe the thoughts and feelings of the white man:

The fear and fascination, the inspiration and the wonder of death - of death near, unavoidable and unseen, soothed the unrest of his race and stirred the most indistinct, the most intimate of his thoughts. The ever-ready suspicion of evil, the gnawing suspicion that lurks in our hearts, flowed out into the stillness round him - into the stillness profound and dumb, and made it appear untrustworthy and infamous, like the placid and impenetrable mask of an unjustifiable violence. 

While many writers have personified death or evil, Conrad attempts instead to personify the feeling or “wonder of death” and “the suspicion of evil.” These vague and surreal concepts, especially given the fact that they are presented when the characters are sitting in silence at night, make it unclear if he is perhaps describing one of the character’s dreams rather than the actual environment. And, in some ways, this mirrors the feelings that Conrad’s readers may have had toward the environments that occupy his stories: A vague and fleeting image of the depths of Africa or the Pacific islands, more a dreamlike fantasy than anything else.